After coming into day two of Far North Cricket’s round one match against Atherton in good position, the Douglas Muddies B grade side notched their first outright win of the season on Sunday.  

The Muddies needed just 53 runs for first innings victory over Atherton and Nathan Taig began the day well hitting a lofted on-drive for four off the first ball. He followed this up with a succession of fours, supported gallantly by Hayden D’Addona.

However, Hayden and Nathan fell in quick succession. This left the Muddies feeling nervous and playing over cautiously resulting in the steady loss of wickets. The Muddies, however, did enough to get over the line and take a first innings lead of 18 runs over Atherton before being dismissed for 173.

Keen to make up for the batting collapse, David Johnson (1 for 25) and Ben Vikionkorpi (3 for 25) went to work to get Douglas in a position to look at taking an outright win. Batting like the English Cricket team, Atherton went into their shell, refusing to play at anything that wasn’t on the wickets.

This brought Adam Lucas (2 for 10) into the attack. He made the batsmen play by attacking the stumps and the batsmen’s bodies with a fantastic display of directed, calculated short-pitched bowling.

This was well supported with turning off-spin from Nathan Taig, picking up two wickets in quick succession. Hayden D’Addona chimed in with the last wicket of the day, from his first over bowling tight leg spin with Sam Hodgson taking a stunning grab at first slip. Atherton were dismissed for just 87 in their second dig, leaving the Muddies with 70 runs neat for the outright win off just 12 overs.

Taking it all in their stride, Sam Hodgson (43) and Simeon Migliorenza (23 not out) set about ensuring Atherton were well and truly buried, by dispatching the bowlers to all areas of the park. Making his 43 from just 22 balls, Sam was bowled with only seven runs to make.

Nathan Taig came out to the crease but didn’t need to make any runs as the bowling went astray and byes let bye, allowing the final runs to be made without hassle. The Muddies won outright with two overs to spare.

This is a dream start to the season for the Muddies B Grade. They now travel to Cairns this week to play Tully at Griffiths Park 2 from 1pm on Sunday.

Two new teams greeted the Muddies C grade cricketers to open their season which started two weeks ago; Mission Beach and Tully each played in 30 over per side half day matches.

Firstly Mission Beach on September 22 made the long trek north to The Muddies Pit and elected to bowl first, triumphant in their toss win. The Muddies openers managed a fast paced 49 runs in six overs before the first wicket fell. Darlington went on to smash 43 off 37 including consecutive sixes.

Newcomer Ben Gaske (22) looked settled contributing partnerships with Darlington then ex-junior batsman, Ashley Davidson (15), to help the team score grow from 1 for 49 to 3 for 108.  Returning players Matt “Shervo”  Schieser (22 not out) and Darren Wall (13 not out) cruised in the last six overs to build a 45 run partnership, lifting Muddies to a very respectable 6 for 158.

Mission Beach played in great spirit, but were heavily underdone and this was confirmed in their batting, all out for 31. Young Michael Shulz, also stepping up from Muddies under 16s team of 2012/13, struck his first wicket to return 1 for 10 off three overs.

Shervo, who had lived up to his personally bragged batting ability, had lost nothing with the ball - six overs at 5 for 12 - but it was the surprise Darlington who managed 4 for 5 off three overs. Mission only had one batsman go past five and he made eight runs amongst 7 clean bowled wickets of teammates.

It would have been a long drive home!

Week two’s match saw the Muddies return the travel but with worse timing - an 8.30am start at Innisfail versus Tully. Winning the toss, Muddies chose to bat on a more difficult pitch although Darlington still managed a virtual run a ball 36 off 40, but fell as the second wicket at 2 for 55.

Doble (6) had been out again hitting across the line although the two had partnered for a worthy 40 seeing off 10 overs. Keith Taylor reveled at first drop although was unlucky to be given out for 14.

Muddies had aimed for 120 on a slower deck but in a bid to add extra runs they went from 3 for 73 to be all out just six overs later for 101, Shulz stranded nine not out. Shervo opened to take two wickets in his second over after new player Deep had 14 taken from his first over for the Muddies. Barnes replaced Shervo (2 for 8 off six overs) and also managed two wickets in his third over followed by a third wicket off his last ball off six overs to manage 3 for 19.

Deep broke through in his third over as once again wickets fell in clusters for Tully as he took two wickets in the over and  another in his next. Daniel Redfern was attacked by a Tully slogger for 18 off one over before Shulz bowled and managed a run out, Darlington taking the last Tully wicket with an underserved delivery, all out 84.

Two day matches commence this weekend for Muddies C with the first home game of the season, and are now equal first on the points ladder. Play starts 1pm Sunday.